“…for the Lamb at the center of the throne will be their shepherd, and he will guide them to springs of the water of life, and God will wipe away every tear from their eyes.”
-Revelation 7:19

Several years ago, I was making a bedside visit to a woman who was dying. Her family had moved her to a hospice home where she could be comfortable in a room to herself, with family and friends able to visit easily. She had brain cancer, and it had progressed quickly beyond treatment. The tumor affected her speech and pressed on her eyes so that she often had tears in her eyes, though she wasn’t in great pain.

For the last month of her life, talking to her was a little like talking to a person who had been impacted by a stroke. Her speech was slurred and sometimes she would say the wrong word without realizing it. Other times, she would drop off her sentences altogether, unable to string words together at all. When that happened, I would read the Bible to her, or tell her about what the kids at church had been up to lately (she loved kids), or if one of her sisters was there we would sing hymns together.

When I went to visit her on this particular occasion, days before she died, speech was even more elusive than usual, and the pressure from the tumor made her eyes well up over and over. She tried to tell me something, but couldn’t get the words together. I could tell she was getting frustrated by her inability to communicate with me. Finally, I got it– she wanted a tissue to wipe her eyes. The thing was, by this time her motor skills had deteriorated, too. She couldn’t grasp and lift the tissue to her face.

I wiped her eyes dry. My own welled up.

You’ve got to get really close to somebody to wipe their tears. I mean, physically, of course, because you have to touch their face, but mostly I mean a more emotional or mental or spiritual kind of close, a kind of willing vulnerability. Just think for a minute about it: who are the people that you’d be willing to let see you cry, and of those, how many would you want touching your eyes? I’m guessing your list is pretty short. Mine certainly is. 

God has promised to be close enough to us to wipe our eyes dry. God wants to be there in those vulnerable moments with us, trusted enough to come close. God’s interest in us isn’t impersonal or distant. It’s intimate, as intimate as wiping away tears.

Today is All Saints Day. For Lutherans, it is a day we remember all those who have lived and died in faith, a practice that quite often brings tears to our eyes. Whether we think of loved ones we miss, or regret words left unsaid, or dwell on our own mortality, it is a sobering day. A sorrowful day, even.

And yet. Even in grief, loss, sadness– we worship a God who has promised to wipe away every tear. We face this day with hope alongside grief because we know that God gives new life. We just how close God comes to us. Nearer than our very breath. Near as life itself. Near enough to wipe away every tear.